Due to Japan’s extended economic stagnation, and the gradual transformation of the job for life into a temporary post for an unspecified period, the myth of all Japanese being middle-class is rapidly unravelling. A growing gap between the haves and the have nots that could potentially threaten the country’s famed cohesiveness.
And the consequences of these changes aren’t difficult to find, as merely walking through any of Tokyo’s parks, or along its rivers, exposes those very much at the bottom of the pile; the myriad of blue-sheeted shelters and commandeered benches highlighting the city’s growing number homeless.
Yet as sad a sight as these encampments are, seeing someone destitute in Tokyo’s uber-expensive and brand centred Ginza district, really emphasises the growing gulf in Japanese society.
BiggerInJapan says
is it just me, or are we seeing more and more homeless here each year?
Lee says
Yeah, definitely seems that way. Especially in the city’s parks. Statistics sadly seem to back that up too.
Joel says
I trully wonder how do they feel, their situation makes it almost imposible to re enter our (society?). That’s funny, yesterday night I saw that old homeless men again in the same spot, reading something. I wish we could do something about it… but I don’t even know where to start.
Lee says
I know what you mean Joel. And interesting you saw the same man. I went to Tokyo’s old Sanya district the other day, and the desperately poor there have their own form of society there in a way, but it’s not one that anybody would willfully join.
Jeffrey says
I’ve always understood that not everyone in Japan was really “middle-class,” but the growing signs of public poverty is heartbreaking. The traffic medians on Hyaku-meter Dori at Central Park in the heart of Nagoya (my Japanese “home town”) is now lined with the blue tarp shelters of the homeless.
Lee says
Yes, it was very much a myth, wasn’t it? And I know what you mean, the numbers are very visibly growing with no real sign of anything being done to help solve it.
Thomas Vye says
It’s the same in London. Real poverty can be seen everywhere. 🙁
Lee says
Yeah, and I dare say it’s quite a bit worse in London…
gunmagirl says
Just spent a couple class periods prepping students (Japanese university) to address the issue of homelessness for their in-class writing final. Really instructive to me to watch them wrestle with questions of causality- societal and personal, as well as policy: Should the average Japanese citizen be concerned with the rising number of homeless? Why or why not?
Jeffrey says
Good on you!
Lee says
Yes, I agree.
I’d be interested to hear what kind of answers they gave, or if there was any kind of consensus.
Mata says
There have been homeless in Japan for many years,when I was an exchange student in Japan(I come from New Zealand) back in 1995 the park next to the high school I attended in Osaka had 4 – 5 homeless men living in it then. I was shocked, not realising that Japan had a poverty problem, one thing that I was always impressed with was how tidy they kept their “homes” and how polite they were. I was also amazed at how uncaring most of my fellow students were at the plight of the homeless in Japan. I am sad to see and hear that it is becomming worse there and not any better.